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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Although not everyone is on board, there are clear signs that the earth is experiencing significant climate change. It also seems clear to most scientists that we humans are major contributors to this change. Last week a major climate summit ended with a historic agreement that commits the nations of the world to addressing this important problem. Climate change is a difficult concept to understand, because it's difficult to pinpoint its effects. Is the fact that it is unusually warm this December a sign? Or, better, are changing migratory patterns of birds a sign? Sarah Fredericks reflects on the issue by showing how religious people have been at the forefront of advocating on this issue. I invite you to read and perhaps offer your thoughts on the question of what we can do as people of faith to make a difference?

Last Saturday, world leaders from 196 nations who had gathered in Paris adopted a historic agreement about climate change

Millions of religious people and their secular partners around the world have worked for years to make this agreement possible.

While religious people care about climate change for a host of reasons, many consider it to be the most significant social justice issue that human civilization has faced.

People are already feeling the effects of climate change. More extreme weather events around the globe disrupt agriculture, damage homes and kill people. The government of Kiribati, a South Pacific nation, has preemptively bought land in Fiji (from the Church of England) so that its population can emigrate to escape rising seas.

Climate change will have the largest impact on people who lack the resources to sufficiently respond. Additionally, those experiencing the worst of climate change generally contributed least to the problem. Thus, climate change is an issue of justice.

Religious people have worked for decades to convince their fellow believers that climate change is important using sermons, prayers, rituals, and educational materials.

Formal statements have also drawn attention to climate change. Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, calls upon Catholics and “all people of goodwill” to take action. Similarly, the global Islamic Climate Change Declaration issued in August articulates the religious dimensions of climate change and urgesd leaders meeting in Paris to “an urgent and radical reappraisal” of existing policies and quick decisive action.

Religious Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on poverty, social justice, women’s rights, and children increasingly recognize that climate change affects their work and advocate, educate, and fund projects accordingly.

In Paris, members of religious NGOs, and religious people motivated by their consciences but acting in secular leadership roles have played an active role in the climate discussions. The Global Catholic Climate Movement, the ACT Alliance, Religions for Peace, and Our Voices combined efforts to present a petition for climate justice with 1,833,973 signatures to Christiana Figueres, the top climate official at the UN, who was “visibly moved.”

Demonstrations were limited due to heightened French security but ecumenical prayer services at Notre Dame, a “Fast for Climate,” and, of course, advocacy work continued. Religious NGOs and their secular partners did incredible work online to educate people about the talks and help them maintain pressure on climate negotiators.

What did the Paris talks achieve?

World leaders agreed to “hold[ing] the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2° C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° C above pre-industrial” temperatures. Compared to earlier international discussions, this statement better recognizes the needs of the most vulnerable for whom even 1.5° C will be catastrophic.

Nations also pledged individual targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Understanding that, if met, current emissions pledges will only halt global temperature rise at approximately 2.7° C, the agreement sets up a framework to have nations review their emissions levels every five years and periodically adopt more stringent emissions targets.

The agreement also provides for financial and technological assistance to developing nations to deal with climate change. The Green Climate Fund, a mechanism set up before the Paris talks, is a prime method of funding to aid those who need it most; Secretary of State John Kerry pledged in Paris to double US contributions.

How did people respond?

Paul Cook, Advocacy Director of Tearfund, an international Christian group focused on poverty alleviation, responded as religious people with insight into the negotiations did:

“We welcome the agreement brokered at these crucial climate talks. This is a good step forward, but let’s not be complacent. This doesn’t give us everything we need—nations will need to go further in reducing their emissions over the next few years to ensure the global temperature does not rise by more than 1.5 degrees to avoid the worst impacts of climate change” (See Ria Voorhar’s press release for Climatenetwork.org in “Resources” below).

Indeed, within hours of the agreement, many nongovernmental organizations already had updated their websites to reflect the new aims of their advocacy work: to ensure that promises made in Paris are kept and, hopefully, exceeded as is necessary to ensure justice for the most vulnerable.

To comment: Email the Managing Editor, Myriam Renaud, at DivSightings@gmail.com. To request that your comment appear with this article on the Marty Center's website, provide your full name in the body of your email and indicate in the subject line: POST COMMENT TO [title of Sightings piece].

Author, Sarah E. Fredericks, (Ph.D. Boston University) is Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her research focuses on the ethics of international environmental policy documents, interreligious collaboration on environmental issues, sustainability, environmental guilt and shame, and environmental justice. She is the author of Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability: Ethics in Sustainability Indexes (Routledge, 2013).

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About Me

I am a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, community activist, historian, teacher. I'm a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. I'm the author of a number of books including Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016) and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015).